MDMK leader Vaiko was today acquitted by a local court of charges of sedition and supporting unlawful activities in connection with his 2008 speech in which he allegedly supported banned terror outfit LTTE.

Top opposition leaders MK Stalin and Kanimozhi of the DMK, and MDMK's Vaiko have courted arrest this morning as they support a bandh or shutdown called in Tamil Nadu over the Cauvery water dispute with Karnataka.

MDMK founder Vaiko today urged Election Commission of India, which has deferred polling in Aravakurichi in Tamil Nadu, to hold polls before the counting date of May 19 for the other 233 Assembly segments, saying the outcome could influence the voters there.

MDMK chief Vaiko today dismissed pre-poll surveys in Tamil Nadu which projected single digit seats for People's Welfare Front (PWF)-DMDK-TMC combine in the May 16 Assembly elections, asking the people to dump them in dustbin.

Vaiko, the chief of MDMK and the architect of the Third Front in Tamil Nadu, has declared that he will not contest in the upcoming assembly polls, alleging that rival DMK was planning to engineer caste violence "centred around him".

MDMK founder Vaiko, Coordinator of the People's Welfare Front (PWF), which has aligned with DMDK and TMC, ON Sunday said Tamil Nadu is undergoing "greatest depression" and promised that the mega coalition of six parties would provide a new deal to people, if voted to power in the May 16 Assembly polls.

MDMK founder Vaiko today accused DMK leader MK Stalin and his son-in-law of trying to split DMDK whose chief Vijayakanth faced a revolt in his party for his decision to align with an alliance of small parties and the Left.

MDMK founder Vaiko, who had recently walked out of a TV interview over a question whether he was offered money by AIADMK, today dismissed such reports as "not true," and insisted he had not taken any money from the ruling party.